Canyons

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1990

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-19

Chapters 20-24

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Brennan Cole

Content Warning: Canyons explores concepts such as racism, colonialism, and violence against children.

Brennan Cole, one of the two protagonists of Canyons, is a 14-year-old boy who lives in El Paso, Texas, with his single mother. Brennan’s father left the family when he was a toddler, causing lifelong distress and sadness within Brennan. A primary characteristic of Brennan is his obsession with running, which he does not out of any sense of competitiveness or desire to be an athlete, but rather as a way to escape his daily life. Brennan is also shown to be very dedicated to his interests and a hard worker; he occasionally helps a local man with landscaping, and he does this job with passion and precision. Similarly, when he becomes obsessed with the skull, he essentially disappears for days during the investigation, at one point working all night long with no sleep. Brennan is a loner, and his best friend is his high school biology teacher, Homesley, who helps him with his mission throughout the novel.

Brennan exhibits an almost spiritual connection to Coyote Runs after he discovers the skull in the canyon. He begins to hear Coyote Runs’s instructions in his mind, and he also has an ability to remember some of the same sights, smells, and sounds as Coyote Runs experienced in his life. When he’s first introduced, Brennan is shown to be insecure and a little judgmental; for instance, he does not like that his mother continues to date and to bring men home, and does not seem to recognize her potential loneliness, only his own desires. However, through his connection to Coyote Runs, Brennan exhibits increased empathy at the end of the novel, allowing him to connect more fully with his mother and Bill.

Coyote Runs

Coyote Runs is the other protagonist of Canyons. Like Brennan, Coyote Runs is a 14-year-old boy who desires to see himself as a full part of his culture and society. Unlike Brennan, Coyote Runs is Apache. Coyote Runs alternates perspectives with Brennan each chapter, up until his untimely death in Chapter 9. Coyote Runs is characterized as intelligent, sensitive, and spiritual, frequently communicating with the spirits to request guidance or aid. Coyote Runs is passionate about his status as an Apache, and his greatest desire is to participate in a raid on the bluebellies, which will grant him a horse and the respect of his fellows.

After his execution by the soldiers, Coyote Runs’s spirit lives on through the skull and is able to communicate with Brennan, showing him Coyote Runs’s memories and indicating his desire to have his remains laid at the medicine place. The tone of Coyote Runs’s fate is bittersweet; though he is eventually laid to rest, his untimely death and lack of care by the soldiers means that his desires were never fully realized in his lifetime, and he was never even treated with the respect he had clearly desired. Once he is laid to rest, his voice leaves Brennan, leaving Brennan feeling sad, as if he’d just lost a friend, reinforcing the somber tone at the conclusion of the novel.

Homesley

John Homesley is a biology teacher at Cardiff School and Brennan’s close friend. The year before, an intervention from Homesley into Brennan’s life saved him from failing, and ever since then, the large and bearded biology teacher had been close to his student. Homesley is characterized as intelligent and reliable. The first person that Brennan goes to following his discovery of the skull is Homesley, since he knows that Homesley will understand what to do. This is a good decision, as it’s Homesley’s connections to various intellectuals that gives Brennan the knowledge needed to understand who Coyote Runs is and return his remains to their rightful resting place.

Homesley frequently takes on a paternal role in Brennan’s life due to Brennan’s lack of a dad. At one point, Brennan thinks, “Why didn’t my mother meet this man and have me and he would be my father” (126), making the connection between Homesley and adoptive fatherhood explicit. In addition to being a biology teacher, Homesley is a musician and a Vietnam War veteran, frequently comparing the experiences of the raiding party to his time in Vietnam. In addition, most of the connections that Homesley exhibits throughout the text are buddies from his combat days; despite this, Homesley is firm about how horrifying war is, which partially leads to his interest in the history of the skull alongside Brennan.

Bill Halverson

When Brennan’s mother is first introduced in the narrative, Bill Halverson, her new boyfriend, is also introduced. Bill Halverson becomes a foil, in this novel, to the more mentoring-type characters, such as Homesley and Tibbets. Even though, in the context of the scene, the introduction does not seem significant, Brennan remarks that “[l]ater he would think back on this time […] later when his life was torn to pieces and he was trying to make it whole again, he would look back on this moment, this exact moment when it started, and wonder how it could be” (12). This is not due to any particular feature of Bill Halverson’s personality, but rather because Bill was the one who invited Brennan on the camping trip where he discovered Coyote Runs’s skull.

Bill is characterized as being a kind and caring man who Brennan’s mother relates to. Bill has trouble with conflict and is the leader of a local youth group whose young members terrorize Brennan during the camping trip. Bill is also knowledgeable about the outside world, frequently telling Brennan and his youth group kids facts about the history and nature of the world around them. Bill is relatively incurious compared to Homesley, as he is shown to panic over the skull and contact the authorities, unlike Brennan’s teacher. Bill also confronts Homesley toward the end of the novel, accusing him of encouraging Brennan’s behavior, until he is cut off by Brennan’s mother, demonstrating the distinct difference in worldview between the adults in Brennan’s life.